Secret Sister Strikes again!

My Secret Sister struck again. A package showed up in my mail with such a lovely little outfit. It's a dress made of pale pink cotton with a cherry pattern on it. There is a matching cream colored wool vest trimmed in pink embroidery thread with round 'pockets' made of the dress fabric. Also included was a real leather little purse-way super cute! There was also 4 pairs of hand crocheted socks. My secret sister must be paying attention on the lists and has picked up on my sock addiction. (I make socks constantly for my dolls-I know that seems strange but it's quite fun) My little Veronique just loved the outfit so she declared it for her own! Such a wonderful gift to receive out of the blue.

What a doll!

I recently crocheted the cutest little doll from a free pattern. A very talented Beth over at By Hook, By Hand has this cutie posted on her blog. It's her Free Spirit Amigurumi Doll and if you look further into her blog you'll find a huge variety of clothing patterns for her as well. Such a very generous gift to anyone that crochets.

Now, this dolly is to be crocheted from worsted weight yarn, and I'm more particular to thread crochet, so I thought why not? I grabbed some size 3 crochet cotton and a size 1 steel hook and out came this little darling.

Azure is about 7 inches tall. Just a petite little thing. My dear BFF suggested the blue tibetan hair for her and she was so right. it's perfect. Now, all the clothing patterns are for the bigger doll so I decided to suck it up and make another doll using the worsted weight yarn like the pattern calls for. Whoa! she's a MUCH bigger doll but WOW the personality. I LOVE her!! I've just finished up all her parts this afternoon so this evening I'll be sewing her together and deciding on her hair do. Next it will be time to work on a snazzy wardrobe for her. Crochet is such a soothing past-time when one is feeling oooogy.

ahhhhh, vacation

We just spent a glorious long weekend up in Wisconsin with my BFF Kate and her lovely, incredibly spry mom Phyllis. Two of the loveliest people you'd ever want to know. They certainly make guests feel very welcome and are fabulous Hostesses-and Phyllis is doing this while in a walking boot recovering from a bad boo-boo.

She taught me how to make her famuos Cherry-Rhubarb frigerator jam. boyohboy is it very YUMMY!!! She sent Kate and I to get cherries (the famous and oh so delectible Door County cherries) and we happened on the find of the year. Now, you know you can't send two young whippersnappers out for cherries and expect them to just come straight home. We got a little sidetracked. Ahem.....we saw some garage sale signs....and they were on our way....So, we decided to stop on the way back. At a garage sale someone had two ball-joint dolls for sale for $2 each. We bought them and then Kate looked them up after we got home. The one that she kept is worth over $300!!! now, that's a return on your money!! LOL. She also got a really wonderful wood doll cradle for her babies and a life-size Middleton doll for only $10!!! and he's so perfect!

Dear hubby went to Iola for the big Military Vehicle show. I stayed 'home' and played dollies and went treasure hunting at Goodwill and a HUGE antique mall. oh dear I had so much fun with my BFF. too bad it didn't last long enough.

so, this trip produced Cherry Rhubarb Jam, a crocheted doll, a sewn teddy bear (he was butt ugly and not even looking like a bear until BFF worked on him with me) and a really super-duper adorable baby doll. I'll post pics soon.